Social Media Design Sizes 2026: The Complete Per-Platform Guide
Correct social media design sizes are the difference between artwork that lands as intended and artwork that arrives cropped or soft. The working rule for 2026: 1080 × 1350 for vertical posts, 1080 × 1920 for every story and vertical video, and 1200 × 630 for link previews. Everything else is per-platform detail, laid out in the tables below — along with what no international guide covers: how Arabic type behaves inside these frames, and which platforms actually matter in the Saudi market.
Why Does the Size Matter at All?
Every platform re-compresses and crops your image to fit its own frame. Upload the wrong size and one of three things happens: part of the design is cut off, it gets resampled and loses its edge, or it is padded with bars that wreck the composition.
The impact is not only cosmetic. A post that occupies more vertical space in the feed earns longer dwell time, and a vertical video that fills the screen holds attention better than a square one framed by empty space. Size is a distribution decision, not a taste decision.
One rule before any table: always design at the largest size listed, export PNG for artwork containing text and logos, JPG for photography. And keep a safe zone of at least 10% on every edge, free of anything essential.
Instagram Sizes
Practical note: in Stories and Reels, the interface covers roughly 250px at the top and 320px at the bottom. Keep text and logos centred, not near the edges.
Snapchat Sizes
Snapchat is a primary platform in Saudi Arabia and it does not tolerate improvisation, because everything on it is full-screen:
A landscape or square design on Snapchat appears surrounded by heavy padding, and users read it instantly as an ad recycled from another channel.
TikTok Sizes
Keep text away from the right edge, where the interaction icons sit, and away from the bottom, where the caption and handle appear.
X, Facebook and LinkedIn Sizes
YouTube Sizes
On the YouTube banner specifically: the area visible on every device is 1546 × 423px in the centre of the image. Anything outside it gets cropped on mobile or on TV.
What Changes in Arabic Design?
This is where international guides stop being useful. Four rules govern Arabic type inside these frames:
① Arabic needs more line height. Diacritics, dots and descenders make an Arabic line feel crowded at a leading that suits Latin text. Add roughly 15–20%, especially in stories where type is large and short.
② The minimum readable size is higher. Arabic at 14px is harder to read than Latin at the same size because of letter detail. For mobile artwork, do not go below 18–20px for body text.
③ Composition starts from the right. An Arabic reader enters the frame from the right, so the most important element — logo, number, offer — belongs there, not where a Latin-built template puts it.
④ Mixed scripts break alignment. A Latin product name inside an Arabic sentence jumps position unless direction is set on the layer itself. Check visually after every edit, not once at the end.
How to Build a Template System for Social Media Design Sizes
Rebuilding artwork from scratch for every post is the single biggest time sink in content teams. The fix is a template system built once and reused weekly, in four steps:
① Start from the vertical size. Design first at 1080 × 1920, because it is the most demanding format in terms of safe area. Then derive the square and the vertical post from it with a considered crop, never the other way round. Scaling up from a smaller master always costs quality.
② Bind colours and type to shared styles. In Figma or Illustrator, define brand colours and text styles as shared components. When a brand colour changes later, every template updates at once instead of you editing dozens of files by hand.
③ Build a safe-zone layer. Add a transparent layer marking what each app's interface covers, keep it visible while working and hidden on export. That one layer prevents most cropping mistakes on its own.
④ Standardise file naming. A name like ramadan-offerig-story1080x1920 tells you the campaign, platform and size without opening the file. Naming chaos costs more time than the design itself.
Once the system exists, producing a full campaign of six designs across four platforms becomes an hour of work instead of a full day — and that gap is what separates a team that publishes consistently from one that is always late.
Five Rules for Artwork That Never Gets Cropped
1. Design per platform. One size posted everywhere means it suits nowhere. 2. Keep essentials centred. Edges are the first thing lost when app interfaces change. 3. Test on a real phone before publishing. What reads clearly on a 27-inch monitor may be illegible at 6 inches. 4. Keep the identity consistent across sizes. Same colours and type across every format is what makes people recognise you before reading the name. 5. Keep a large master file. Re-exporting from a master is far easier than upscaling a small image.
Leave the Design to a Team That Knows the Platforms
The right size is only the starting point. Artwork that stops the scroll needs an idea, an identity and craft — plus knowing what works on Snapchat versus what works on LinkedIn. At Taqweed we produce complete visual content — posts, motion graphics and campaigns — sized correctly for each platform and unified by one identity across all of them.
Take your visual presence to a level that fits your brand. Talk to the Taqweed team.
Read more: visual identity design.
Read more: brand identity cost.
Industry data: Statista — Saudi Advertising & Branding Market.
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Common Questions
Vertical at 1080 × 1350px, a 4:5 ratio, because it occupies the largest space the feed allows and buys your design more dwell time before someone scrolls past.
Square at 1080 × 1080 is the most flexible and posts to most platforms with minimal adjustment. But it is not the best on any of them, so treat it as a fallback rather than a default.
PNG for artwork containing text and logos, because it preserves edge sharpness, and JPG for photography to keep file size down. Avoid uploading unnecessarily huge files — platforms re-compress them anyway.
Core dimensions are fairly stable; what changes more often is the area covered by app interfaces. Review safe zones every few months rather than re-checking the dimensions themselves.
Usually because it was designed smaller than required and then upscaled, or because the file was compressed twice. Always design at full size and export once at maximum quality.
Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok and X carry heavy usage, while LinkedIn matters for corporate and B2B content. The practical rule: pick two platforms you do well rather than five that receive the same recycled post.
Three cover most cases: vertical 1080 × 1920 for stories and video, 1080 × 1350 for the feed, and 1200 × 630 for link previews and websites. Everything else is derived from those three when needed, so building ten separate templates up front is rarely worth it.
Usually yes. Text length differs between the two languages and the composition flips direction, so an English version copied literally from the Arabic leaves gaps in the wrong places. --- By the Taqweed team — specialists in graphic design and creative content.